By Peter Cochrane, 9 July 2008 11:03
COMMENT
Written on the flight back to London and dispatched via a free wi-fi service in the lounge at Heathrow later the same day.
We all know it when we see it and we can get irritated when it's absent. Good design is one of those abstract things that are hard to define. But we appreciate its advantages and generally seek it out.
Some companies work on the premise that everything they sell will be good by design. Others have entirely the opposite reputation.
When you buy some service or technology, it is awfully tempting to go for the cheapest option. The result of such misguided decision-making is evident throughout industry and government.
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Everything from hospital and office cleanliness to vehicle reliability, from IT services to mobile devices, is harmed by such perversity of process.
Interestingly, the price difference between the best of the best to the worst of the cheapest tends to be between 10 and 20 per cent - well below the additional lifetime cost and the value of the damaged reputation inflicted by a bad choice.
The real paradox in this equation of value is that the people engaged in making these poor decisions look for quality when they make personal purchases.
They go for good brands in clothing and cosmetics, reliable vehicles, great audio and video. Not for them the bargain clothes rail at the supermarket or the discontinued lines, or manager's bargains down at the local electronics store.
How does all this come about? One factor is simple-minded, up-front costing and a complete lack of appreciation of what the people who work with the customer require.
It is so easy to get a reputation for being a cheap operation, leading to the perception of low-quality delivery and support, and so very hard to correct in the customer's mind.
The UK car industry between 1970 and 1980 was not just destroyed by overseas competition. Customers correctly perceived the goods were cheap and shoddy and of fundamentally poor design.
Today I can report that the same mechanism is still alive and well. I recently heard from someone who had visited a software house that boasts world-class delivery of outsourced services. From his account I made a mental note never to engage or recommend the company.
Why? People were apparently crammed into hot and dirty offices with broken chairs, and generally poor accommodation standards including trailing wires, a lack of new paint, and computers and screens that looked as though they were scrap-heap souvenirs.
Add to this a management attitude that was straight out of Dickens and how could anyone perceive this as a quality operation?
And the company claimed it could reduce costs substantially on any existing contract if moved to its facility. Hmm, let's see. I would need a hole in the head before I did anything so stupid.
Far from reducing my upfront costs, I am looking to spend between 10 and 20 per cent more to get a better end result and thereby a much happier customer who will be less likely to walk away and more likely to give me more work.
It is not just as individuals that we have to look the part. Being clean, smart, well behaved and professional also extends to our company and especially our place of work.
Turning off a customer is so easy and is usually final. But turning them on takes an effort that has to be maintained every day.
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. misceng
Peter as an engineer did not mention the most annoying factor in the design of many items whether cheap or expensive. The item may be beautifully thought out and a top designer employed to deal with the aesthetics but the engineering which makes it work seems to have been cut back to keep the cost down. Too often a weak piece of plastic or a switch fails leaving an elegant piece of junk.
2. Peter Cochrane
Misceng
All included under the heading of 'poor design'....there are so many aspects including under rated components in every aspect....
Peter
3. Graeme Teesdale
Juran, Deming, cite them all. However your point is valid, yet at the risk of being confrontational, I would suggest that there is an element of obsolescence being built into a number of products which renders them of perceived lower quality more possibly just trying to keep the onsell opportunities open.
4. anonymous
Funny how money is not to be wasted on buying unnecessary stuff like chairs/new computers/bit of painting etc, yet you you find senior managers/directors with all the gadgets, getting first class travel and also driving gas guzzling premium Mercedes/BMW/Porsche models on their opt-out allowances for company cars (to avoid full co.car tax liability too) and on the company fuel card.
They should all be driving a Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI's, and practising what they preach on cost-cutting.
When I started in business
Essential Users got an Vauxhall Astra
Mid-Range Users got a Vauxhall Cavalier/Vectra
Directors got a Vauxhall Calibra/Carlton
(The MD has a Vauxhall Senator)
Period.
Fat-cats, kerching at the trough of self-reward, and bugger the workers.
5. Richard Taylor
What an excellent article from Peter at his quality best. People have been forced to put with shoddy goods and services for years.
I like to go to the Autumn Gift Fair at the NEC: innovation and excellence abounds and it restores my faith in UK PLC. Why is this not translated into quality jobs in manuifacturing industry? Quite simply because, unlike the German Karstadt or Paris Galeries Lafayettes, UK retail is big, many buyers (there are some exceptions) are inflated and lazy and just want an easy life with minimal marketing and Chinese prices.
I should add that high property related overheads in UK add a huge risk element to UK retailing, further squeezing investment in innovation and service.
6. Peter Cochrane
Graeme
If it were not for a degree of obsolescence our products would be even worse - and I like designers and industry who learn to do it better generation on generation.
Peter
7. Peter Cochrane
Anonymous
1) I hate small cars - they are dangerous
2) I never buy new ones
3) I pay for them out of my own pocket
4) In my life cars come second to good equipment and staff working conditions
Peter
8. Peter Cochrane
Richard = Perhaps the worm will turn and a new age of manufacture based on new materials and technology will change this scene. It sure would be nice to see....just watch the impact of high oil prices on supply chains! Peter
9. Simon Allen
"The pain of low quality, outlasts the joy of low price."
Siemens Nixdorf
The problem is the pesky customer who always wants to pay less. People like Dixons/PC World know how much less the customer wants to pay and build down to that price - as do countless others. Since they then make shed-loads of dosh (with the returns allowed for) there is no incentive to make quality.
Whilst I too try to find quality where I can, look at the success of RyanAir to know that price is king. In the recession, expect this pressure to increase but, perhaps, it might make some quality items lower in price too!
10. Peter Cochrane
Simon = Great quote - thanks, Peter